Directory:Google and Energy

From PESWiki

Google has taken great initiative in pushing for clean energy solutions. They have long maintained that their goal is to become a carbon-neutral company. Their involvement includes: (hotlinks to elaboration below)

Given their success as a search engine and related endeavors, their entering the foray of becoming an energy utility is likely to be very successful, especially given renewable energy's bright future.

At the same time, I must say that I have never seen any indications that Google shows even the slightest interest in the kind of exotic free energy technologies we feature here at PESWiki. They've never responded to any email or phone contact attempts we've made with them, and none of the news stories about their foray into renewable touch on them showing any interest in the exotics. They play it safe with the academia-approved, known science-abiding technologies, which is kind of wimpy in my opinion, because history tells us that this is not where many of the true breakthroughs arise. Maybe they don't appreciate that phenomena because Google wasn't born in a garage but a University.

As long as their efforts move us toward more distributed energy and autonomy, not toward an Orwellian world, then we might be glad they're involved in the mainstream renewable energy technologies. Sometimes you have to wonder, with how much they enable and appear sometimes to be sympathetic with Orwell. We encourage you to sign the petition telling Google not to enter an information-sharing agreement with the NSA.

Larry Page Inspired by Tesla

Tesla / Google > As a child, Larry Page aspired to be like Tesla - In this misnamed excerpt, the founder of Google says that when he was a child, maybe 12, his parents gave him the Autobiogaphy of Nikola Tesla, and he was so moved by it that he cried when he was done reading it, and said to himself that he wanted to be like Telsa, but actually get his inventions into the market. The video has been up a year, only 319 views, 2 likes, 3 dislikes. Let's double that in the first hour. Like; pass it on. (YouTube / zeitgeistminds; September 27, 2011)

Google Initiatives

RE > C: Google Projections for 100% RE in US by 2030

In 2007, Google pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help engineers and scientists figure out a way to generate 1 gigawatt of clean electricity and make it cheaper than coal. [1]

In 2008, Google CEO Eric Schmidt presented an energy plan--complete with explicit math calculations--to back up an idea for how the U.S. could eventually get 100 percent of its electric power generation from renewable sources, cut emissions by half, create more jobs, and decrease overall energy costs. [2][3]

The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030. Their analysis suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%. A big chunk of that portfolio would come from energy savings through increased efficiency and conservation, essentially holding the total energy used steady at around 4.4 Terawatts over that period.

High Altitude Wind Power > Makani Aims to Harvest High Altitude Wind - "Makani Power is seeking to harness high-altitude wind energy to produce energy at an unsubsidized real cost significantly below that of the least expensive coal-fired power plants, the current benchmark of the lowest cost source of power." (PESWiki; Jan. 29, 2008)

10 to the 100th Project Seeks 5 Best Ideas

Google marked its 10th anniversary by offering 10 million dollars for five of the best world changing ideas. After the submission deadline October 20th, 2008, a Google panel will announce 100 nominees to then be narrowed to 20 via Google user input, then to 5 by a Google board. Will it include a renewable energy idea?

Google's Own Renewable Energy Usage

Google has launched its own energy pilot projects including a 1.6-megawatt solar installation for its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, thought to be the largest corporate-owned installation in the U.S. [4]

Google-Developed Energy Products

Smart Charging Software for Plug-In EVs

Google has developed its own "smart charging" software for plug-in electric vehicles. [5]

Metering Software

Google has developed a smart metering software platform for monitoring and regulating home electricity use from any Web-enabled phone. Google Power has been testing the software in the U.K. [6], as well as unveiling a U.S. version for smart phones. [7]

Google Doodle

Google Youth Contest: If you could invent one thing to make the world a better place - ...we do have a few youth who visit. And maybe some of you have a little Leonardo Da Vinci in you. At a minimum, it could be and opportunity to bring some needed awareness to exotic free energy. I doubt any of our inventors would mind if you sketched a variation of their invention for this contest. (Free Energy Blog; February 5, 2014)

Google Energy (Utility)

Google Energy formed as a Delaware-based subsidiary of Google in Dec. 2009.

On Feb. 18, 2010, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signed an order authorizing Google Energy to buy and sell electricity in bulk like any other utility, granting market-based rate authorization. This paves the way for Google to not only better manage its own energy costs, but to possibly add electricity marketer to its repertoire of services. [8]

As of Feb. 23, 2010, Google has garnered over 500 megawatts worth of projects for Southern California Edison and several utilities in the southwestern U.S., with projects in the pipeline for China, Spain, the Middle East, and South Africa. [9]

"Google Energy has just proven to all of American business that if you are big enough, consume enough energy and have the right technology, you can make financial sense of starting your own 'utility'. Expect Google Energy to be followed by the possible likes of, GM Energy, Toyota Energy, Pfizer Energy or maybe even WalMart Energy. Why would these huge consumers of Energy NOT follow in Google footsteps in leasing land, developing energy property and then trading the electricity through the grid to offset their energy bills for their stores, 100 story office buildings or dealerships all while enjoying huge tax credits from the Federal government?

"Being in the business of developing your own 'Utility Type' company to develop renewable energy properties to sell energy back to your business entity is the first massive step to a Distributed Renewable Energy Generation." – Renewable Energy World; Feb. 22, 2010.

Google Investments

As of Feb. 23, 2010, Google has invested hundred of millions in green energy technology research and start-up companies with projects in wind, solar, solar thermal, and geothermal. [10]

Google's most notable electricity investment success story might be eSolar, a start-up that grew out of the Google Idealab and offers "turnkey" thermal solar energy plants using software-controlled heliostats. [12]

Google Energy Conferences

In Nov. 2009, Google hosted its own energy conference that included leading energy experts and the U.S. undersecretary of energy. [14]

Google Empowering Orwell?

Google Search, Maps, and other monitoring capabilities provided by Google could easily be misused in the wrong hands.

Censorship of Good Info

Featured: Conspiracy > Big Brother > Google > Censorship > Is Google Search Trends Censoring Snowden? - I discover and document how Google has omitted "Snowden" from their Top Trends algorithm. I do this by showing how that search term compares to the terms that do appear in their Top 7, actually placing Snowden in #1 or #2 position, further showing Google's complicity in the big data spy grid being set up by the unconstitutional NSA spy apparatus. (PureEnergyBlog; June 18, 2013)

Petitions

Articles

Tell Google Not To Enter Into an Agreement With the NSA! - The Washington Post reported that Google is negotiating an information-sharing agreement with the National Security Agency (NSA) to help the company defend its networks. The NSA is part of the military, and its primary mission is spying. It collects the equivalent of the contents of the Library of Congress every six to eight hours, every single day. And in the last decade, it turned its surveillance efforts inward on the American people — in violation of the law and the Constitution. (OrwellsDreams; Feb. 10, 2010)

Google’s link with security agency upsets bloggers - GOOGLE’S decision to enlist the help of the National Security Agency to deal with cyber attacks has caused alarm among internet groups and bloggers who fear that personal information could be accessed by the US government. (OrwellsDreams; Feb. 10, 2010)

Google Orwellian - Google is powerful — and we all learned from Orwell that power corrupts. As to search, Google has near total power — will total power totally corrupt Google? (Publishing2; Feb. 6, 2006)

Google’s Orwell Moment - "Google recently introduced a new service that adds social-networking features to its popular Gmail system. The service is called Buzz, and within hours of its release, people were howling about privacy issues—because, in its original form, Buzz showed everyone the list of people you e-mail most frequently. Even people who weren't cheating on their spouses or secretly applying for new jobs found this a little unnerving. (Newsweek; Feb 22, 2010)

What would George Orwell think of Google Dashboard? - The ability to adjust your personal-information settings seems like a good thing. But those settings only pertain to protecting your privacy from other people, not from Google itself. (DVice; Feb. 11, 2009)

Personalized Search - All's Well or Orwell? - Google is now (and has been for some time) collecting data on individual users, and they are assuming that users will trust them with this data to "Do No Evil," as their famous slogan goes. (SearchEngineGuide; August 3, 2007)